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Ministers are promising to cut years off the time it takes for National Health Service patients to receive life-saving new drugs.

The Government is launching a review looking into a radical overhaul of the way that promising new drugs are tested and cleared for approval.

Plan to cut time taken for patients to receive new drugs. Credit: PA

Life sciences minister George Freeman said unlocking the power of the NHS to be a "test-bed" for new medical innovations could dramatically reduce the time it takes for patients to gain access to new treatments.

The Department of Health said a fresh approach was being made possible by ground-breaking developments in genomics and digital technology.

Cocaine worth £62 million has been seized aboard a yacht off the coast of Ireland, the Irish Navy has said.

The 60 foot vessel called Makayabella was intercepted some 200 nautical miles off Mizen Head - Ireland's most southerly point - in the early hours of yesterday morning but details have only recently emerged.

Three British men, believed to be from West Yorkshire, were apprehended by armed naval personnel on the yacht and were arrested on shore by the Garda.

If the haul is confirmed, it will be one of biggest drugs seizures at sea in Europe this year.

Free foil will be given to heroin addicts by health bodies in a bid to help them beat the drug.

Free foil will be given to heroin addicts. Credit: REUTERS/Katrina Manson

The Government hopes the move will encourage users to inhale rather than inject class A substances.

Health professionals, including both the NHS and privately run treatment centres, will be legally allowed to issue the foil from next month.

By allowing foil to be legally provided by healthcare professionals we are taking another positive step in reducing the number of individuals, families and communities whose lives are destroyed by drugs.

The decision was made on the condition that it is part of structured efforts to get individuals off drugs and will minimise the risk of spreading viruses like HIV, while encouraging more addicts to engage with support services.

Legal highs are so popular the only option is to "educate people who are using them" about how they can make safer choices about the drugs they take, an addiction specialist told Good Morning Britain.

Associate medical director of the CRI, David Bremner, said: "In a matter of days a new drug will be released that will have one molecule changed that then beats the law so that it is no longer illegal...all we can do is educate people who are using them on how to make safer choices."

Professor Fabrizio Schifano, CRI's Consultant Psychiatrist, has been at the forefront of collating evidence around the UK's legal high situation.

Speaking about the Strange Molecules campaign, he said:

When you think that the UN Office on Drugs and Crime has picked up 348 new psychoactive substances, and that new ones are being developed every week, it's clear that we are only scratching the surface of a serious public health challenge.

What's so worrying is how little is known about these substances, yet they are quickly becoming the drug of choice for many impressionable young people.

If we can dissuade them from taking these dangerous, unregulated drugs by giving them the facts, then we're already winning half the battle."

One of the UK's biggest drug and alcohol charities, CRI, has warned that the UK is "only scratching the surface" posed by Novel Psychoactive Substance (NPS) or 'legal high' misuse.

As part of its new campaign, CRI has launched strangemolecules.org.uk to keep young people informed of the facts as new drugs are discovered every week.

New legal highs are discovered every week. Credit: Niall Carson/PA

David Biddle, Chief Executive of CRI, says the charity is committed to informing the debate, he said:

"Some of these substances are highly potent and can be very risky, possibly up to 10,000 times stronger than the street drugs they emulate, with tiny amounts able to trigger extreme psychoactive responses."